"I dunno, Bessie--I declare I dunno!" he answered, slowly. "He seems almighty anxious to get hold of her--an' I declare I dunno why. Seems like there must be lots of other girls over there at the poor-farm he could take if he's so powerful anxious, all of a sudden, to have a girl to work for him. I did hear say, though, that he'd got some sort of a paper signed by the judge--an' if that's so, there ain't no tellin' what he can do. Made him her gardeen, I guess, whatever that is." "But Zara doesn't need a guardian! She's got her father," said Bessie. Paw shook his head. He looked as if he didn't think much of the sort of guardianship Zara's father would give her. He was a good, just man, but he shared the Hedgeville prejudice against the foreigner. "I reckon you're right about not wantin' to get those young ladies I saw you with mixed up with Silas, Bessie," he went on, reflectively. "Too bad you can't get hold of that Miss Mercer. She's as bright as a button, she is. Now, if she were here, she'd find a way out of this hole before you could say Jack Robinson!" "I believe she could, too," said Bessie. "If you'd seen the way she started out after Farmer Weeks when I told her I thought he must have gone to Zebulon!" "Zebulon? Was she a goin' there? Then maybe she ain't come back yet, an' we could meet her on the way. Eh?" "Oh, I'm afraid she must have gone back to the girls long ago," said Bessie. "Well, you jump in behind there, and get under cover. Ain't no one goin' to look in--you'll be snug there, if it is a mite hot. An' I'll just drive along an' see if I can't meet your Miss Mercer. Then we'll know what to do. An' I'll spell it over, an' maybe I'll hit on some way to help you out myself, even if we don't meet her. Like as not I'll come across Silas Weeks, too, but he'll never suspicion that you're in here with me. Ha! Ha! Not in a million years, he won't. No, sir!" Bessie laughed, and she and Zara jumped in happily. "We've got ever so many friends, after all, Zara," she said, in a whisper, as they drove along. "Look at Paw Hoover. He's been as nice as he can be, and he thinks I set his place on fire, too! I'm sure things will be all right. We'll find the girls again, and everything will be just as we had planned." "Bessie, why do you suppose Farmer Weeks is so set on having me to work for him? Doesn't that seem funny to you? I'm not as clever as lots of girls he could get, I'm sure." "I can't guess, Zara. But we'll find out sometime, never fear. Did he and your father ever have anything to do with one another?" "They did just at first when we came out here. He came over to our place in the evenings a good deal, and he and my father used to talk together. But I never knew what they talked about." "Did they seem friendly?" "They were at first." "Then I should think he would have tried to help your father when there was trouble."